Saturday, June 8, 2002 - Park Jefferson Speedway
Heat - John started 5th in the 2nd heat race of the night. After the extremely dry positions the week before the track was actually tacky in the heat race and looked to hold a little water come feature time. At the start John quickly moved past several cars and set out in pursuit of pole sitter, Mark Nolen. John hadn't really raced with Nolen before so we weren't sure what to expect. John made a move to the inside of Nolen to initiate what turned out to be quite a side by side battle. The two would battle side by side for about 4 laps with John on the bottom and Nolen on the high side. John expected Nolen to drive it into the corner too hard, but he proved to be a solid competitor very much holding his line and battling consistently. John's experience showed through as he finally backed off into the 2nd position, but just a couple laps later Nolen slid high in turn 3 and John motored by to the heat race win.
A Feature - John started from the 10th position, and was fast right from the start on a track that was significantly more racey than on previous nights. There was enough water to make the track raceable and yet still some dry spots. As the race progressed the track got dryer, and John got faster...good combination. John was definitely one of the fastest cars on the track, passing a car almost each lap. With about 7 to go John moved into the 3rd position behind Wally Wagner and Rick Shau's #77t. Schau had led the race from the front row the entire way and had built up a sizeable lead. John made up about 7-8 car lengths on Wagner in a single lap and was making a move to the inside of Wagner in turn 2 when the caution came out. Unfortunately, John had gotten together with Wally while trying to make that pass and knocked the tow out on the front end of the car. Over the closing laps John would fight an ill-handling car, and after the restart was unable to keep up with Wagner and Schau. John held off a late charge by Rich Hesse for the 3rd position. It was a great run, just like we needed after our tough showing last week.
Standings - It was a great night in the points, as John gained back most of the points positions he had given up the previous week, climbing all the way back to 5th in the points, tied with Wally Wagner. The field is still lead by Hesse, Clark, Cole, and Kyle Koster. As we've seen many times in the past, top-5's breed points positions. |
